Unguent Bottle (Amphoriskos)

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Unguent Bottle (Amphoriskos)

Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean, possibly from Rhodes

DateLate sixth through fifth centuries BCE

DimensionsH: 3 1/16 in. (7.8 cm); Diam: 1 1/8 in. (2.8 cm); Max Diam of Body: 1 7/8 in. (4.7 cm)

Mediumglass

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.146

Not on View

DescriptionThis amphoriskos features a cobalt-blue ground decorated with opaque yellow and opaque turquoise-blue threads. It has a broad, inward-sloping rim-disk, a cylindrical neck, an obtuse-angled shoulder, and a top-shaped body. The circular cobalt-blue base-knob has a rounded edge and is nearly completely covered by a marvered opaque yellow thread. Two cobalt-blue vertical strap handles, largely restored, extend from the shoulder to the upper part of the neck. An unmarvered opaque yellow thread is attached at the edge of the rim-disk. A second opaque yellow thread and an opaque turquoise-blue thread, both marvered, begin on the shoulder and are tooled into a close-set zigzag pattern extending to the middle of the body. Below this, another opaque turquoise-blue thread and a thin opaque yellow thread, both marvered, are wound horizontally around the lower part of the body. Short vertical indentations on the body result from the tooling of the zigzags. The vessel was made using the core-forming technique, with applied rim-disk, handles, base-knob, and applied marvered and unmarvered threads.

Published ReferencesGrose, David F., Early Ancient Glass: Core-Formed, Rod-Formed, and Cast Vessels and Objects from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Roman Empire, 1600 B.C. to A.D. 50, New York, Hudson Hills Press in association with the Toledo Museum of Art, 1989, Cat. No. 100, p. 145.